# @noahwetzel on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DJiX9BHOpsd
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/59723269-noahwetzel-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/73aa17caa2.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-05-12T02:40:44.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Noah Wetzel (@noahwetzel) — https://gondola.cc/noahwetzel

## Caption

Overlooking the twin sea stacks on Rialto beach above “Hole in the Wall” on a sleepless night on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. See the moonlight passing through the arch below?

On this particular evening I checked the tidal forecast and walked through this arch at low-tide, venturing a bit further to shoot landscape imagery at sunset. It was so perfect, so peaceful, there’s something so incredible about water and the ocean, the raw power is silencing and calming. After shooting sunset I headed back to this spine a couple hundred feet above the beach to shoot moonrise. The tide that night kept on surging and surging well into the night beyond the predicted high tide totals. I could’ve climbed over the logs on the beach disturbing backpackers, but chose to wait it out. 

Hour after hour the tide wasn’t receding. From my perch glancing down the mile or so of visible shoreline, I could see backpackers waking up, multiple at a time to shine their headlamps on the water that kept on smashing into the logs they were tightly tucked behind. Some individuals moved their tents a couple times. It was somewhat humorous, but had to be very unsettling with relentless waves crashing into the logs, spraying water on top of their tents and rushing underneath the logs and into their tents. 

Waiting for my exposures to finish frame after frame, I fought to stay awake while precariously positioned with serious exposure on both sides. I couldn’t fall asleep, it wasn’t an option. It was so peaceful on the other hand, for a night that viewpoint was mine, regardless of how exhausted I was. Luckily I bought a pack of cigarettes the day before and patiently watched the night pass, counting down the minutes before I could light another one to help me stay awake.  Moonlight finally transitioned into dawn, and I could finally venture down to the beach and return to the trailhead. Upon hiking down to the beach, I was greeted with the most incredible pastel hues of dawn, and reluctantly rallied to shoot some incredible images of the twin sea stacks with the setting moon, my favorite images from the trip. 

#landscapephotography #rialtobeach #olympicpeninsula #washingtonpics #pnw

## Stats

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## Tags

rialtobeach, washingtonpics, landscapephotography, pnw, olympicpeninsula

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